So, Joel Santana, Bafana Bafana coach has finally announced his squad that will participate in the Confederations Cup in a couple of week’s time. Of course the biggest talking point is that of the exclusion of Benni McCarthy, I know Benni has had his moments with the call ups, but do you think the South African national team selectors are shooting themselves in the foot? Another player of note that’s been excluded is the PSL’s current leading goal scorer, Richard Henyekane of Golden Arrows.
Santana has also included Orlando Pirates’ Benson Mhlongo and Katlego Mphela, are these justified inclusions? Lance Davids has been under performing in the last couple of games he featured for South Africa, but he made the cut, justified? Also Brian Baloyi has been picked over Calvin Marlin.
Well there are a lot of surprises in this squad and I want to hear from you if you think Santana made the correct selections or not.
The selected squad is as follows:
Goalkeepers: Brian Baloyi (Mamelodi Sundowns), Itumeleng Khune (Kaizer Chiefs), Moeneeb Josephs (Orlando Pirates), Rowen Fernandez (Armenia Bielefeld, Germany)
Defenders: Matthew Booth (Mamelodi Sundowns), Siboniso Gaxa (Mamelodi Sundowns), Morgan Gould (SuperSport United), Tsepo Masilela (Maccabi Haifa, Israel), Aaron Mokoena (Blackburn Rovers, England), Nasief Morris (Recreativo, Spain), Bryce Moon (Panithinikos, Greece), Lucas Twala (Orlando Pirates), Bongani Khumalo (SuperSport United)
Midfielders: Lance Davids (Djurgardens, Sweden), Kagisho Dikgacoi (Golden Arrows), Teko Modise (Orlando Pirates), Masilo Modubi (Westerlo, Belgium), Siyabonga Nkosi (Maccabi Netanya, Israel), Steven Pienaar (Everton, England), Macbeth Sibaya (Rubin Kazan, Russia), Siphiwe Tshabalala (Kaizer Chiefs), Benson Mhlongo (Orlando Pirates), Surprise Moriri (Mamelodi Sundowns), Elrio van Heerden (Club Brugge, Belgium), Innocent Mdledle (Orlando Pirates)
Strikers: Bernard Parker (Red Star Belgrade, Serbia), Katlego Mphela (Mamelodi Sundowns), Thembinkosi Fanteni (Maccabi Haifa, Israel), Mabhuti Khenyeza (Ajax Cape Town), Katlego Mashego (Orlando Pirates)
Do you think the exclusion of Benni McCarthy will come back to haunt us or Santana was spot on? Let’s talk…
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May 29th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I PERSONALLY THINK HAINYEKANE IS NO QUALITY STRIKER COMPARE TO FANTENI, PARKER, BENNI & MASHEGO PATAINING INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL & ESPIRIENCE COZ THER IS NO TYM FOR GAINING ESPIRIENCE ANYMORE, 2010 IS AROUND THE CORNER.
May 29th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
@kwz,
I agree with you but Mashego has always failed to justify his selections to the national team in the past, he’s failed to succede at PSL level also, but Henyekane, who’s never been called up, scored an emphatic 19 goals this season, now shouldn’t this atleast warrant him a call up?
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:21 am
my name is Bafana, I would like to comment on the game of Bafana Bafana vs Spain we should have won the game the main problem is that either our Coach or Pitso have a political issue against Simphiwe Tshabalala because since the CAF started they are putting him in when there is only 10 or 5 minutes left on the clock, and Sibaya,Mhlongo they were not committed on the game,so i would like to know why they choosen Tshabalala while they know that he is not good enough to play, if we want to beat Brazil they must use a combination of Tshabala and Teko then we will have the game against Brazil lets face it Pitso hates on Tshabalala and he must go before it too late for boys.
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:27 am
@Bafana,
Hola Bafana and welcome to Footballfevr, I agree with you that Tshabalala deserved more game time, he’s a natural leftwinger and on Saturday we forced to play wingplay with Teko on the left. Teko in my opinion was not in the game, looked fatiqued and Tshabalala could have made a good replacement early in the game.
about the politics, I’m not too sure, but I know Pitso has always had a bad influence on the selections.
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:42 am
the thing is that we are keeping Pitso and he hates on too many players, I noticed that Teko was not in the match, a reason being Mhlongo and Sibaya they play the same method which is destroyer so we needed someone to play with Teko and that is Tshabalala and we must take a look at Aaron Mokeona’s paly on the game too many mistakes.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:28 am
@Bafana,
This is the thing, whenever we decide to play defensive, the mood of the team becomes negetive as well, starting with 3 defensive midfielders on Sunday against Iraq was the main reason why we didnt score a goal, on the game agaist NZ we played 2 defensive midfielders instead of three, which worked for us as the players took on a positive mindset as well.
If we go to Brazil with a defensive mindset, we will loose and that will be because we’ll be allowing too much space and letting them attack us, if we play our game, we might succeed, the best form of defence is attack…
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:12 pm
the reason for not choosing a top goal scorer for bafana bafana is that no one scores for our national team it is only lucky goals so what i sthe use